ABSTRACT
Pierre Bourdieu’s ideas have undergone diverse and fruitful reinterpretations over the past four decades. The acclaim for Bourdieu’s theories on culture, cultural capital, and social space, developed in Distinction,1 has somewhat overshadowed another major theoretical contribution found in his earlier, lesser-known works: the exploration of class inequalities in the experience of time. The subjective connection to the future, influenced by unevenly distributed economic resources, serves as a fundamental, cumulative principle in analyzing social hierarchies. This chapter proposes to revisit these underappreciated analyses to inform a contemporary examination of social structure. This approach would help address certain limitations in sociological theory and enhance our understanding of current circumstances. Bourdieu’s writings during his Algerian period and on the petty bourgeoisie predate the development of his most recognized conceptual framework. This should not be seen as a sign of incompleteness or lack of accomplishment; rather, it presents an opportunity to identify alternative and valuable ways of examining the social world. By situating these ideas within their contemporary context, we can explore various theories proposed by Bourdieu that facilitate the study of social phenomena such as unemployment and precariousness. A particularly relevant aspect is the connection between economic structures and temporal structures.
